My friend is the president of our school's FCCLA and she persuaded me to join. There's a conference every year that has competitions in a lot of areas, including fashion design. I wanted to come up with something really unique, since she said most people use solid colored fabric and generic looking patterns.

So I did my fabric shopping at IKEA.

Yeah, the Swedish furniture store. They have fabric downstairs, and they cut it for you and everything. It's probably meant for curtains and pillows and reupholstering chairs, but I thought they would make pretty sweet skirts. So I bought a yard of this bright, springy fabric and got to work!

I created the pattern myself, making the edges at the bottom circular and the tops rectangular. I have sketches if anyone's interested in seeing them. I put an extra seam in the back to make it flow a little more. I made a waistband with a pink knit, and I also put a zipper in the side. I made a bow out of sheer pink fabric. I really love this skirt and can't wait to wear it! The judges loved it too...they gave me a silver medal and kept telling me how interesting and creative it was to go fabric shopping at IKEA.

See how much I stand out compared to some of the other participants? Even though they all made BEAUTIFUL and amazing garments.

This is me on the runway: (we actually had to model...it was...weird.)

Here's the skirt and my silver medal!

I hope you like it! And if you want a tutorial, I'll be glad to scan my drawings and explain the pattern pieces a bit more!

...Because I made this shirt in like an hour. But I originally intended for it to be open and laced up in the back... and wore it the wrong way just to see how it looked and I like that better. I may alterr the front and then maybe wear the laces in the back. But tomorrow I'll wear this shirt to camp and see what kind of reactions I get. Well, before that, what kind of reactions will I get from craftster?

Yeah, I love that work... I bookmarked that site a while back. I wish someone would do that around here, too! But you have to realize how that art has to be approached the right way. Example (it's that picture of the swimmer from the wrong side of the street):

I know, I know. Halloween is more than a month away. Yes, well, starting this stage of planning the week before is called procrastination, and that's not good. Anyway, I have some ideas for my costume already. I made a whole big planning thing with pictures on my blog (http://home.comcast.net/~kerris4321/2005/09/its-pirates-life-for-me.html). But my question is this:What on earth is this skirt called? I LOVE it.... I plan on wearing it even when I'm not at a Halloween party. And I was wondering if anyone knew of a pattern or anything like it. Even an idea of what the skirt might be called if I were to ask/search about it would be helpful. Thanks!

This dress is so hideous. I might as well paper bag--it might be more form-fitting than this dress! I look like I weigh a million pounds when I wear it, and I look kind of snobish. It's something you'd wear to a country club (yeah, I've done that), funeral (guilty of this, too), or maybe a wedding (actually, two weddings). And I need something to wear to my friend's sweet 16 on Saturday, June 18. Yeah... a little over two weeks away. Can somebody please help me?

This picture was taken into a mirror, with another one at an angle behind me. So you get a back/side view, too. This picture would look better if there was no laundry behind me, the lack of a flash didn't discolor the whole thing, and I didn't look so huge.

For my project, I made a matching set of photo albums. I used...1. 1950s-style wrapping paper: $2.00 for both.2. 1950s-style "atomic" shaped gift bows: $1.00 for both.3. Two different size photo albums that were white and gold. Ick. $2.00 total.So, basically, I took a bunch of gift wrap and made photo albums. w00t. I saw the bows and knew I had to have them! I was like, "Ahhh!! I need these!" And the old people in the store looked at me werid. Oops.

Every summer I try something new. This summer, I REALLY want to make mosiacs. All this started when I went on a trip to a glass-blowing factory and I saw some mosic house numbers. They were beautiful... and I wanted to make stuff like it. (see pictures below) Also, I've been watching shows, and I looked at EVERY thread about mosaics on here. I've also looked at a few books. Well, all that research didn't do much except inspire me. I know I need tile nippers, a glass scoring tool, glue, and grout. Well, the last two confuse me the most. Every show/book/etc. shows a different type of grout. I know there are people on here who make mosiacs... can you help me? Another thing is that I don't want to spend TOO much on this. Here is one of the numbers I talked about earlier. It basically sums up the type of mosaicing (is that a word? lol) I want to do. There are ceramic tiles, glass, beads, shells, and really unique bits in there.

to those of you who were too lazy to read all of that: I didn't make the above craft!